Beyoncé, Lin-Manuel Miranda and other celebs who managed to make the most of 2016

Beyoncé performs during TIDAL X: 1015 on Oct. 15 in New York City. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images for TIDAL)

Some stars led a lackluster existence in 2016; a staged Instagram snap here, a placed product there. Sadly, too many died. But a select few celebs — just like us! — managed to make the most out of a mostly miserable year. Here are those fortunate souls:

Leslie Jones

Jones earlier this year fell victim to hackers and fended off racist attacks from Twitter trolls, eventually quitting the social platform in tears. But the "Ghostbusters" star, proving her considerable mettle, came out swinging — returning to joyfully live-tweet the Olympics, crashing the Emmy accountants' speech to talk about online privacy and joking about her leaked nudes on "Weekend Update." She ain't afraid of no trolls.

Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan

At least one 2016 breakup had a happy ending. Strahan ran the ball to a shinier gig at "Good Morning America" following his uncomfortably expedited exit from "Live!" in May, and Ripa, amid the farce of auditioning new co-hosts, saw her ratings soar — proving yet again that she's better off solo.

Beyoncé

Queen Bey fully embraced her role as an agent of social change, beginning with her staggering "Formation" halftime show and bolstered by her support for the Black Lives Matter movement and victims of the Flint, Mich., water crisis. She still kept gossip hounds salivating with the release of "Lemonade" — rife with references to infidelity — prompting fans to desperately dissect its lyrics for deeper meaning.

Mariah Carey

Mimi runs on drama, and this year wrought plenty. She leapt from a broken engagement into a burgeoning (alleged) fling with a backup dancer, continued flaunting her ex's behemoth ring-finger rock, and managed to alienate even more Hollywood women by saying she didn't "know" them. All that, and she still had time to snap awkward Christmas-themed photos of herself "festivating" in lingerie.

Scott Baio speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. (MIKE SEGAR/REUTERS)

Donald Trump, Scott Baio and Kid Rock

Hillary Clinton trotted out her cavalcade of A-list lefties, but President-elect Trump and his horde of has-beens had the last laugh. In the weeks after Nov. 8, Trump gloated on Twitter about his win and was crowned Time's Person of the Year; a defiant Baio told liberals to "grow the blank up"; and Kid Rock unveiled a vulgar, pro-Trump apparel line branding blue-state America "Dumbf--kistan." We're still shocked "Fight Song" didn't win Democrats the election.

Lin-Manuel Miranda takes his final curtain call as the star of “Hamilton” on July 9. (Jeff Bachner/for New York Daily News)

Lin-Manuel Miranda

There are many things we could say for the man whose musical provoked a Saturday-morning Trump tweet — but we'll let the composer's bushel of Tony Awards, Pulitzer win and Golden Globe nom do the talking. Keep on killin' it, Lin.

Meghan Markle

As the hosts of D-list celebrity podcast "Who? Weekly" might say, Markle this year traded in her "who?" card for bona fide "them" membership. The "Suits" lead's across-the-pond courtship with Prince Harry transformed her into the top-Googled actress — and apparently also a hot commodity for culinary shows.

Carrie Fisher

Though a heart attack resulted in her untimely death Tuesday, Fisher lived a pretty great 2016. The actress-writer titillated us with news of a decades-old Harrison Ford tryst in her third memoir, won an award from Harvard College for her addiction and mental illness activism, starred in a documentary with her mom, and let her tongue-lolling therapy dog, Gary Fisher, upstage her at this year's Nerd Prom. Just last month, she counseled a reader on bipolar disorder, an illness she also lived with, in an advice column for The Guardian. Rest in peace, General Organa — we're sorry Smash Mouth and Cinnabon are tweeting about you.